罗马书 9
Chinese Union Version Modern Punctuation (Simplified)
保罗忧愁以色列人不信
9 我在基督里说真话，并不谎言，有我良心被圣灵感动给我作见证。 2 我是大有忧愁，心里时常伤痛。 3 为我弟兄，我骨肉之亲，就是自己被咒诅，与基督分离，我也愿意。 4 他们是以色列人，那儿子的名分、荣耀、诸约、律法、礼仪、应许都是他们的； 5 列祖就是他们的祖宗；按肉体说，基督也是从他们出来的——他是在万有之上永远可称颂的神！阿门。 6 这不是说神的话落了空。因为从以色列生的，不都是以色列人； 7 也不因为是亚伯拉罕的后裔，就都做他的儿女，唯独“从以撒生的，才要称为你的后裔”。 8 这就是说，肉身所生的儿女不是神的儿女，唯独那应许的儿女才算是后裔。 9 因为所应许的话是这样说：“到明年这时候我要来，撒拉必生一个儿子。” 10 不但如此，还有利百加，既从一个人，就是从我们的祖宗以撒怀了孕， 11 双子还没有生下来，善恶还没有做出来——只因要显明神拣选人的旨意，不在乎人的行为，乃在乎召人的主—— 12 神就对利百加说：“将来大的要服侍小的。” 13 正如经上所记：“雅各是我所爱的，以扫是我所恶的。”
随意怜悯慈悲
14 这样，我们可说什么呢？难道神有什么不公平吗？断乎没有！ 15 因他对摩西说：“我要怜悯谁就怜悯谁，要恩待谁就恩待谁。” 16 据此看来，这不在乎那定意的，也不在乎那奔跑的，只在乎发怜悯的神。 17 因为经上有话向法老说：“我将你兴起来，特要在你身上彰显我的权能，并要使我的名传遍天下。” 18 如此看来，神要怜悯谁就怜悯谁，要叫谁刚硬就叫谁刚硬。
预言外邦人蒙爱
19 这样，你必对我说：“他为什么还指责人呢？有谁抗拒他的旨意呢？” 20 你这个人哪，你是谁，竟敢向神强嘴呢？受造之物岂能对造他的说：“你为什么这样造我呢？” 21 窑匠难道没有权柄从一团泥里拿一块做成贵重的器皿，又拿一块做成卑贱的器皿吗？ 22 倘若神要显明他的愤怒，彰显他的权能，就多多忍耐宽容那可怒、预备遭毁灭的器皿， 23 又要将他丰盛的荣耀彰显在那蒙怜悯、早预备得荣耀的器皿上—— 24 这器皿就是我们被神所召的，不但是从犹太人中，也是从外邦人中——这有什么不可呢？ 25 就像神在何西阿书上说：“那本来不是我子民的，我要称为我的子民；本来不是蒙爱的，我要称为蒙爱的。 26 从前在什么地方对他们说‘你们不是我的子民’，将来就在那里称他们为‘永生神的儿子’。” 27 以赛亚指着以色列人喊着说：“以色列人虽多如海沙，得救的不过是剩下的余数。 28 因为主要在世上施行他的话，叫他的话都成全，速速地完结。” 29 又如以赛亚先前说过：“若不是万军之主给我们存留余种，我们早已像所多玛、蛾摩拉的样子了。”
律法的义和信心的义相比
30 这样，我们可说什么呢？那本来不追求义的外邦人反得了义，就是因信而得的义； 31 但以色列人追求律法的义，反得不着律法的义。 32 这是什么缘故呢？是因为他们不凭着信心求，只凭着行为求，他们正跌在那绊脚石上。 33 就如经上所记：“我在锡安放一块绊脚的石头、跌人的磐石，信靠他的人必不至于羞愧。”
Romans 9
New Living Translation
God’s Selection of Israel
9 With Christ as my witness, I speak with utter truthfulness. My conscience and the Holy Spirit confirm it. 2 My heart is filled with bitter sorrow and unending grief 3 for my people, my Jewish brothers and sisters.[a] I would be willing to be forever cursed—cut off from Christ!—if that would save them. 4 They are the people of Israel, chosen to be God’s adopted children.[b] God revealed his glory to them. He made covenants with them and gave them his law. He gave them the privilege of worshiping him and receiving his wonderful promises. 5 Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are their ancestors, and Christ himself was an Israelite as far as his human nature is concerned. And he is God, the one who rules over everything and is worthy of eternal praise! Amen.[c]
6 Well then, has God failed to fulfill his promise to Israel? No, for not all who are born into the nation of Israel are truly members of God’s people! 7 Being descendants of Abraham doesn’t make them truly Abraham’s children. For the Scriptures say, “Isaac is the son through whom your descendants will be counted,”[d] though Abraham had other children, too. 8 This means that Abraham’s physical descendants are not necessarily children of God. Only the children of the promise are considered to be Abraham’s children. 9 For God had promised, “I will return about this time next year, and Sarah will have a son.”[e]
10 This son was our ancestor Isaac. When he married Rebekah, she gave birth to twins.[f] 11 But before they were born, before they had done anything good or bad, she received a message from God. (This message shows that God chooses people according to his own purposes; 12 he calls people, but not according to their good or bad works.) She was told, “Your older son will serve your younger son.”[g] 13 In the words of the Scriptures, “I loved Jacob, but I rejected Esau.”[h]
14 Are we saying, then, that God was unfair? Of course not! 15 For God said to Moses,
“I will show mercy to anyone I choose,
and I will show compassion to anyone I choose.”[i]
16 So it is God who decides to show mercy. We can neither choose it nor work for it.
17 For the Scriptures say that God told Pharaoh, “I have appointed you for the very purpose of displaying my power in you and to spread my fame throughout the earth.”[j] 18 So you see, God chooses to show mercy to some, and he chooses to harden the hearts of others so they refuse to listen.
19 Well then, you might say, “Why does God blame people for not responding? Haven’t they simply done what he makes them do?”
20 No, don’t say that. Who are you, a mere human being, to argue with God? Should the thing that was created say to the one who created it, “Why have you made me like this?” 21 When a potter makes jars out of clay, doesn’t he have a right to use the same lump of clay to make one jar for decoration and another to throw garbage into? 22 In the same way, even though God has the right to show his anger and his power, he is very patient with those on whom his anger falls, who are destined for destruction. 23 He does this to make the riches of his glory shine even brighter on those to whom he shows mercy, who were prepared in advance for glory. 24 And we are among those whom he selected, both from the Jews and from the Gentiles.
25 Concerning the Gentiles, God says in the prophecy of Hosea,
“Those who were not my people,
I will now call my people.
And I will love those
whom I did not love before.”[k]
26 And,
“Then, at the place where they were told,
‘You are not my people,’
there they will be called
‘children of the living God.’”[l]
27 And concerning Israel, Isaiah the prophet cried out,
“Though the people of Israel are as numerous as the sand of the seashore,
only a remnant will be saved.
28 For the Lord will carry out his sentence upon the earth
quickly and with finality.”[m]
29 And Isaiah said the same thing in another place:
“If the Lord of Heaven’s Armies
had not spared a few of our children,
we would have been wiped out like Sodom,
destroyed like Gomorrah.”[n]
Israel’s Unbelief
30 What does all this mean? Even though the Gentiles were not trying to follow God’s standards, they were made right with God. And it was by faith that this took place. 31 But the people of Israel, who tried so hard to get right with God by keeping the law, never succeeded. 32 Why not? Because they were trying to get right with God by keeping the law[o] instead of by trusting in him. They stumbled over the great rock in their path. 33 God warned them of this in the Scriptures when he said,
“I am placing a stone in Jerusalem[p] that makes people stumble,
a rock that makes them fall.
But anyone who trusts in him
will never be disgraced.”[q]
Footnotes
- 9:3 Greek my brothers.
- 9:4 Greek chosen for sonship.
- 9:5 Or May God, the one who rules over everything, be praised forever. Amen.
- 9:7 Gen 21:12.
- 9:9 Gen 18:10, 14.
- 9:10 Greek she conceived children through this one man.
- 9:12 Gen 25:23.
- 9:13 Mal 1:2-3.
- 9:15 Exod 33:19.
- 9:17 Exod 9:16 (Greek version).
- 9:25 Hos 2:23.
- 9:26 Greek sons of the living God. Hos 1:10.
- 9:27-28 Isa 10:22-23 (Greek version).
- 9:29 Isa 1:9 (Greek version).
- 9:32 Greek by works.
- 9:33a Greek in Zion.
- 9:33b Isa 8:14; 28:16 (Greek version).
Copyright © 2011 by Global Bible Initiative
Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
